Beskrivning
Beskrivning
Thisbook investigates the emerging phenomenon of the self as it exists in the onlineworld. It argues for an externalist conception of self and identity, one thatdoes not depend on the continuity of consciousness of the subject. It alsooffers an analysis of related phenomenon such as online friendship and gamesbased on this analysis. An outstanding feature of social networking sites suchas Facebook and MySpace is that it allows for the user to put forward their“selves” or their identity onto the Internet and use the online self as ananchor to connect with any number of “friends” each of whom also has their ownonline selves. A number of questions then arise which are deeply conceptual andphilosophical in nature: What is the metaphysical nature of this emerging onlineself? Is it the same or fundamentally different from the “offline” self withwhich we are already familiar? Since increasing numbers of people are connectedto the online world, this world itself seems to be taking on a reality of itsown. This much has been appreciated by a number of scholars in the field.However, there seems to be lacking a systematic study of the philosophical andmetaphysical nature of the self that has become a key element in cyberspace, akey topic which this volume addresses. Apart from the problem of constitution ofthe online self, this volume addresses related questions concerning personalidentity in the online world and scrutinizes computer games and thecharacteristics that they share with social networking sites. Unlike themajority of the existing literature, which discusses the topic from a moresocial scientific perspective, this volume fills the lacuna of a philosophicaland theoretical study of the online world.
